A media story that claimed Beijing was pressuring Islamabad to permit its own security personnel to protect thousands of Chinese workers in the South Asian country in the wake of the Karachi airport attack has been flatly denied by Pakistan.
According to sources cited by Reuters on Monday, Beijing had requested that Pakistan “allow its own security staff for Chinese citizens” during negotiations following a vehicle bombing in Karachi that was deemed to be “a major security breach.”
A banned group, the Majeed Brigade of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), claimed responsibility on social media for the suicide explosion near Karachi airport last month, which killed three people, including two Chinese citizens.
At her weekly press briefing on Thursday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch responded to the report by dismissing it.
